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A. H. LIGHTHALL.

GABLE SWITCH [0R SHIFTBR P03 UNDERGROUND ENDLESS CABLE RAILROADS.

No. 288,947. Patented Nov. 20, 1883.

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PATENT ALMERIN H. LIGHTHALL, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

:PEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 288,947, dated November 20, 1883.

Application filed October 13, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALMERIN H. LIGHT- HALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Gable Switch or Shifter for Underground Endless-Cable Railroads, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved automatic cable-switching device adapted to be placed within the cable-tunnel and operated by the grip'shank upon the dummy; and the object of the invention is to provide a means whereby the moving cable may be shifted or moved out from its normal position into the same vertical plane as that occupied by the grip -jaws, and permit of the cable being grasped by the said grip-jaws.

In the drawings hereunto annexed, and which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my cable-switch in posit-ion. Fig. 2 is across-section through the cable tunnel and switch. Fig. 3 is a plan View.

Similar letters of reference are used to indicate like parts throughout the several views;

A represents one of the yolres of the cable way or tunnel, and B the bottom or floor of the same. A. low table or platform, 0, is firmly secured to the tunnel yoke and floor, and the top of this platform. is below the travelliue of the cable, and supports the switch and and 2. The switch is composed of a shaft, D, placed in a nearly-vertical position, the lower end being globular and stepped in a countersunkbearing-platc bolted upon the platform 0, thus forming a ball-andsocket joint, E. The upper end of this shaft is made plain, and has its bearing in a block, F, which is pivoted by two small lugs, G G, to the casting H, secured upon the weight end of the switch-lever I. This lever I is one of the first class, and is fulcrumed or pivoted upon a bolt or pintle set in a side-slotted casting attached to the outside of the top of the tunnel-yoke, as seen in Figs. 1 and 3. The power end of this lever is made fiat and curved or bent, so that the periphery or outeredge, J, of the curved portion will lie beneath the slot and across the track to be traveled by the gripshank. The

platform 0 also supports the guides K K for the sliding journal-boxes L of the cablecarrying wheel P; and the height of this wheel is regulated by the set-screw M, working against the boxes L L, and by elevating or depressing this wheel the height of the moving cable with reference to the switching or shifting drum, to be hereinafter described, may be regulated.

The shaft 1) is provided at or near its middle with a drum, N, against which the cable rests when in its normal position. This drum may be loosely placed upon the shaft 1), and held in position by collars O O, shrunk or keyed upon the shaft; or the drum maybe itselfkeyed upon the shaft, the object being simply to lessen the friction, as the travel and contact of the cable upon the face of the drum will tend to produce a revolution of the drum or drum and shaft.

In practice this cable-switch will be found particularly useful at the terminus of a road, or where the dummy is shifted from one track to the other, also in places where one cable crosses another at the intersection of streets or cable-tunnels.

The operation of my improved cable switch or shifter will be as follows, to wit: As the dummy approaches a crossing or nears the terminus of the track, the cable is dropped, and the momentum of the dummy will carry the train over the crossing or down the trackswitch and onto the opposite track, when the broad, thin shank of the grip will come in contact with the curved lever-arm I, and by deflecting it outward will throw the opposite end inward, and cause the drum N and its carrying-shaft D to assume a more nearly vertical position, and switch, shift, or slide the cable across the face of its carrying-pulley toward the center of the tunnel-Way, and move it into a position which will be in vertical alignment with the jaws of the grip, and enable the driver of the dummy to instantly close the grip-jaws upon the cable. For convenience a chock should be placed in the slot for the purpose of stopping the car when shifting from one track to another at the terminus of a road. Said chock will arrest the progress of the car and stop it in such a position that the grip shank will rest against the curved end of the swing-lever, and hold the cable in rcadiness to be grasped when the train shall have beenmade up; and after each action of the cable-shifter the switch will automatically resume its original position, ready for operation by the neXt car or dummy.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

' 1. The combination, with the tunnel and the grip-shank traveling in the slot thereof, of mechanism operated by said shank to shift or switch the cable into the grip-jaws, substantially as shown and described.

2. A cable switch or shifter for underground cable roads, consisting of a vibrating shaft, D, pivoted at its lower end, and having a friction-roller, N, the said shaft being operated to throw the cable into position by the contact of a grip-shank with the curved hori- 20 zontally-swinging lever-arm I, the inner end of which is connected with the upper end of the shifting-shaft D, substantially as shown, for the purpose specified.

3. In a device for switching or shifting the cable of endless-cable railroads, the main supportingframe-work or yoke A, shaft D, having a ball-and-socket step, E, friction pulley or drum N, held by collars O O, and top bearingblock, F, pivoted by lugs G G to the horizontally-swinging lever I, the latter adapted to be operated by the grip-shank of a passing dummy, substantially as and for the purpose set forth and specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ALMERIN H. LIGHTHALL.

Vitnesses:

A. R. BROWN, PHILIP MAURO. 

